The ethical teacher is, by necessity, an ethical person. One who lies and
cheats for personal gain or who is callous towards the feelings of others is
unlikely to transform into a principled person of integrity upon becoming
a teacher. And, the teacher who strives to empathize with students and
colleagues, who aims to be fair, careful, trustworthy, responsible, honest,
and courageous in the professional role probably understands and
appreciates the importance of such virtues in everyday life as well. The
moral and ethical principles that teachers themselves uphold in the ways
that they interact with students and others and in their approach to their
professional responsibilities provide the basis of one aspect of their moral
agency.

As a double-pronged state entailing a dual commitment on the part of
teachers, moral agency concerns both what teachers hold themselves to
ethically and what they seek to impart to students as contributing to their
moral education. This chapter focuses on the former, those ethical principles
reflected through the teacher's overall demeanour and specific behaviour,
whether deliberate or not. This element of moral agency is primarily
important on the grounds of a nonconsequential imperative. It is simply that
students (and others in the professional teacher's world) have a moral right
to be treated fairly, kindly, honestly, and with competence and commitment.
Also important is the associated, but more consequential, consideration that
students learn lessons about morality through their experiences with
teachers. They can sense when teachers genuinely care about them; they can
sniff out hypocrisy in a flash; and they are alert to differences between the

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